20131021: Horror Review--The Unseeable

The Unseeable (Pen choo kab pee)

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. Thai live action feature length film, 2006, NR, 93 minutes, horror, mystery, romance.
2. IMDB: 6.4/10.0 from 366 users. Spoken word is Thai, English subtitles.  Aspect 1.85
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 'No reviews yet,' and 54% liked it from 395 audience ratings.
4. Netflix: 3.1/5.0 from 16,909 audience ratings.
5. Directed by: Wisit Sasanatieng
6. Starring: Suporntip Chuangrangsri as Madame Ranjuan, Tassawan Seneewongse as Ms. Somjit, Siraphan Wattanajinda as Nualjan.


2. Setup and Plot
1. Pregnant Nualjan is on the road, walking, and in discomfort.  She comes upon Madame Ranjuan's house, which seems to be an inn within a walled, gated compound.  Ms. Somjit works as maid for for Ranjuan.  Choy lives on the compound as well.  Nualjan is looking for her violinist husband Chob, who has gone missing.


2. Choy is quite the chatterbox.  Somjit is imperious with Nualjan and Choy.  Somjit deigns to allow Nualjan to stay until she finds (hopefully soon) a new place to stay.  Choy and Nualjan are relegated to the guest quarters, and told forcefully to stay away from the main building, where Madame Ranjuan lives.  There's a shack on the compound where Grandma Erb lives; she's reputed (by Choy) to be crazy, reclusive, and next to silent.  To add to the fun, there's a crumbling shrine on site on which Ms. Somjit regularly drops offerings of food.  Someone apparently takes the offerings.  Plus there is some man who digs in a garden area, but only at night.  Lastly, there have been sightings of a long-haired woman using the swing on the 'rain tree' at night.  Supposedly she committed suicide by hanging at that spot.


3. Creepy setup, check.


4. Nualjan explores a bit timidly.  Ms. Somjit reads her the riot act for that, but then gives her a small tour, and some history.  Somjit asks Nualjan whether she believes in ghosts, and gets a negative.  Somjit, on the other hands, is very much a believer.  Choy is not impressed; apparently Somjit tells everyone the same stories.  That night, though, Nualjan wakes up to see a small girl, who challenges her to follow.  This results in trouble again from Somjit.


5. The baby arrives.  Various odd things happen.  Madame wants to see Nualjan and the newborn. Then she wants to see them both everyday. Nualjan sees the little girl again, and follows her into yet another building on the compound.  Choy follows.  They visit Grandma Erb, but do not wake her up.


6. The next morning she leaves her child with Madame Ranjuan, who promises to have Ms. Somjit return the child the afternoon of the same day.  Nualjan has some bad dreams. Ms. Somjit warns her against poking around in the antiques room again.  Perhaps it was not a dream?  She takes a walk, finds Chob playing his violin.  He tells her that he has been at the compound for some time, as Madame Ranjuan's lover.  She wakes up later, in the evening, wondering where her baby is.


7. So, what's left here?  Why is the Madame interested in the baby?  Did Nualjan actually see her husband or something else?  What is Grandma Erb up to?  What of the hanged woman and the little girl with anklets?  Do the loops get closed?


8. Spoilers below.


9. Nualjan confronts Ranjuan, and a number of issues get exposed.  Chob was Ranjuan's husband, but was going to leave her since she was barren and Nualjuan had conceived.  Choy is the 'vampire' who ate the umbilical cord and the offerings at the shrine.  Chob is the man who is digging, but only at night, for his own corpse that Ranjuan buried after killing him.  The girl ghost does not run this time, but does not explain either.  Toward the end, Nualjan is surrounded by ghosts.  She falls into the antiques room, where Somjit is eating rats.  Somjit had died from a fall down stairs after seeing that Madame had killed Chob.  Doors open and close.  Behind each lie more ghosts of the compound.


10. After that, even darker realizations come to the fore regarding the girl with the anklets, Erb, and Nualjan.


3. Conclusions
1. One line summary: Sad, dark ghost story from Thailand.
2. Four stars of five.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 5/10 Woof: buy a better camera system for the next movie.  I experienced this film on streaming Netflix.  The visuals are poor quality throughout: soft focus, low contrast, dim in broad daylight, grainy.  On the other hand, the film is low on camera shakes and jerks, and reasonable on framing.


2. Sound: 10/10 Much better than the visuals.


3. Acting: 8/10 No particular problems.


4. Screenplay: 10/10 Good story, well executed.